In the prior art, banks, credit unions and other financial institutions (hereinafter “FI”) often provided software for their account holders to conduct banking transactions and other financial transactions and otherwise manage their finances from a computer or mobile electronic device, such as a laptop computer, notebook computer, personal data assistant, smart phone or other electronic device that a person can readily transport with him/her (hereinafter collectively, “Computing Device”). Such banking software allowed users to conduct various types of financial transactions, make deposits, transfers, pay bills, wire transfers, view accounts, etc. (hereinafter “Standard Banking Software”). In fact, many account holders insist that their FI provide Standard Banking Software, or the account holder will move funds, loans, their relationship or other connections to a new FI.
Standard Banking Software can also be dovetailed with, or include, Personal Financial Management (“PFM”) software that provides additional functionality, such as keeping track of income, expenses, budgeting, net worth analysis, etc. PFM can also be configured to manage the financial affairs of an individual with accounts at various financial institutions.
When an individual who does not have an account at a particular FI, that user either cannot use the Standard Banking Software at all, or can only use the Standard Banking Software for very simple, typically non-financial, functions such as locating a local branch of the bank or financial institution. Therefore persons without an account at a particular FI have little to no idea what software services and functionality that FI may offer. As a consequence, the non-account holder end user consumer has very limited options in Standard Banking Software, and rather than having the ability to choose the software of his or her liking, the end user is restricted to that Standard Banking Software offered by his or her particular banking institution. As a potential customer of a particular FI, the non-account holder has no significant or true “hands on” way to develop an impression of the experience of using that FI without actually opening accounts, transferring money and engaging in various financial transactions to enjoy an actual account holder experience.
The FI may have the best (or worst) Standard Banking Software available and the most positive (or worst) user experience, but potential customers simply do not have an optimal way to truly confirm or directly experience that in advance. The primary method for customers to distinguish among banks and financial institutions (and financial software, if any) is sales slogans, trademarks/logos, fee structures and quick snippets on TV, billboards, radio or the like that attempts to partially describe their software offering. There is presently no mode of allowing potential new users, specifically non-account holders, to gain access to the software that a bank has to offer, as Standard Banking Software is reserved for existing account holders of that particular FI without the time-consuming, and often undesirable and difficult process of opening an account at a new FI, or other time-consuming research method.
Similarly, FIs presently have no opportunity (or limited opportunities) to, in a near unrestricted manner, contribute to the banking community and to broaden their potential customer base by offering the near complete or totally complete functionality (or a partial set thereof), features and benefits of the particular Standard Banking Software that they have developed or otherwise offer to their account holders. Although some FIs see the Standard Banking Software merely as a necessary evil in order to retain account holders, it is possible that in the future others may wish to provide the best and most robust Standard Banking Software possible to attract and serve customers, and offer such software to the general population, in order to build their brand or altruistically serve the banking community.